About $323 million in crypto had been hacked from FTX’s international exchange and $90 million had been hacked from its US exchange since it filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, CEO John Ray said.
During FTX’s initial investigation into hacks of its system, it uncovered a November asset seizure by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, which led to a dispute between FTX’s US-based bankruptcy team and Bahamian regulators.
The crypto assets recovered to date include $685 million in Solana, $529 million in FTX’s proprietary FTT token and $268 million in bitcoin, based on crypto prices on Nov. 11, 2022. Solana, which was lauded by Bankman-Fried, lost most of its value in 2022.
In a presentation titled “Maximizing FTX Recoveries,” lawyers and advisors for FTX debtors updated the total liquid assets identified for recovery, and said they’re valued at about $5.5 billion.
“We are making progress in our efforts to maximize recoveries, and it has taken a Herculean investigative effort from our team to uncover this preliminary information,” Ray said in the statement.
Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis referenced the dispute during a Tuesday event at the Atlantic Council in Washington, saying that Ray’s team had “come around” and accepted that the Bahamian asset seizure “was appropriate and perhaps has saved the day for many of the investors in FTX.”
The 20-page presentation from FTX’s lawyers and advisors provides a breakdown of FTX’s assets and where they are looking for potential recoveries that could be returned to debtors. That includes hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of property in the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried lived and ran the company.
Bankman-Fried, who has been accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to pay debts incurred by his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, pushed back against FTX’s calculations late Tuesday, saying that the company’s lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell had presented an “extremely misleading” picture of the company’s finances.
